SEM and SEO:
What is a SEM? How Do They Work Together?
SEO and SEM are really two sides of the same coin, but they consist of very different actions and relate to different aspects of marketing. Sometimes the two terms are used together to reference a similar set of activities, which can be confusing for those of us who aren’t as familiar with this world. SEO is the process of improving your website to generate traffic, while SEM (including PPC) is using paid methods to show up in searches.
PPC
PPC stands for ‘Pay-Per-Click’, and refers to a type of online advertising. With PPC, you don’t pay for the ad on the search results page directly, as you would with a banner or display ad. Instead, you pay each time someone clicks on that ad to get to your website.
SEM
SEM stands for ‘Search Engine Marketing’, and is the blanket term used for any kind of activity intended to improve how easy it is to find a particular website via a search engine.
Google Ads
Google Ads is Google's pay-per-click (PPC) advertising solution, which allows businesses to bid on keywords for a chance to show ads in Google search results. When using Google Ads, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad to visit your site or call your business.
Why Is SEM Important?
Increase Profit
According to Google, any business can double its investment in AdWords! For every $1 spent on the ad, Google generates a profit of $8. Google Ads owns 73% of the paid search market. Of course, anyone who has ever run an SEM campaign in AdWords knows that while this is possible, you have to know what you’re doing to achieve these results.
Increases Brand Awareness & Trust
One of SEM’s most significant advantages is brand awareness or brand recognition. Your brand will stand out more if you launch an SEM campaign. Even when ads don’t get clicked, brand names still get noticed on the top of the search result page, and users may still read or identify the product/service, brand’s name or URL when they see the ad.
It’s Accessible Even to Small Businesses
One of the biggest hesitations with paid search advertising is cost. There’s also no minimum amount you have to spend to run ads. As little as $5 will get you started if you’re on a budget. The success that you will get for your budget is a different story, though. Quarata Consulting can help you create strategies customized to your budget.
SEM is Great for Local Marketing
Google helps local businesses by providing them with an advantage regarding SEM results. Local SEM ads give them increased visibility when generating actual foot traffic for their local stores. Research claims that more than 75% of people who search for local business information online will visit a physical store in under 24 hours in the hope of making their desired purchase.
Generates Immediate Results
SEO and other forms of online marketing tend to be “long game” strategies that generate web traffic over a long period (6+ months). In contrast, SEM has the potential to deliver immediate results. From the minute your ads are launched, which doesn’t take long, the potential to start getting more clicks and even sales is alive. For this reason alone, SEM is one of the fastest-to-launch traffic strategies. Just keep in mind that campaigns should still be optimized for long-term results.
Helps You Understand Your Customers
SEM can also be helpful for analyzing traffic and discovering search intent. By analyzing the data from your PPC search campaigns, you can see patterns in search terms, which ads receive the most clicks, and the number of conversions for each ad so you can identify important trends. Understanding keywords (especially long-tail!) offers unique insight about what your customer is looking for that can help inform other marketing channels.
SEM advertising: do you have questions?
Now that you have gone through 6 powerful reasons why search engine marketing is important, you should at least give paid search advertising a shot.
Search Engine Marketing has immense potential to provide instant results, conversions and more revenue, so even skeptics need not to wait long before they become SEM believers.
It’s crucial for businesses to concentrate on SEM so that they can realize both immediate and long-term results, examine that data for better insights, and, in turn, convert searchers into customers. SEM has the potential to do all that, and more.
If you’re looking for reliable SEM solutions in the market, you might as well take a look at Quarata Consulting. QC (Quarata Consulting) is an expert search engine marketing company in Colorado Springs that provides best SEM, SEO and SMM (Social Media Marketing) services.
Is PPC important with SEO?
Brand Awareness
Increase trust and awareness by having both strong organic and paid visibility.
Test Keywords
Test your keyword strategy in PPC before committing to long-term SEO strategies.
Increase Total Traffic
The total traffic volume can be increased by targeting clicks in paid and organic for high-performing keywords.
Collaboration
SEO and PPC complement each other and work well together. Combining both these strategies can make a significant impact on the overall performance of a website.
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by Quarata Consulting